December 2010

It's been a good year at A Good Beer Blog - and a good decade while we are at it. As this is the last day that has a claim to being the end of the first ten of the millennium, we could reflect on where good beer was at the dawn of this new era and where it is now. We could but we won't. Because it …

My math is pretty bad but not as bad as the news out of Liverpool in central New York near Syracuse that the Galeville Grocery has shut after being a grocery store since 1926 and a building since 1854. Reader Jack forwarded me last Friday's news in an email earlier this week: • Even into this …

You know I like Andy Crouch. I like Andy. He and I agree on so many things that I can't believe it. Then he goes and writes this and I get all pffttwzzatchamacallit!!! • With all of this said, many great breweries, including Dogfish Head, started on an extremely small scale and there are many …

Watch quietly first. Is this profound or crass? I mean do we really care about the speed, the product or the profit margin? What is neat is seeing that many beer fill in a minute. Could it be run on gravity dispense? Could it be set to serve the perfect imperial stout or hefeweizen? Could glass be …

I recall that where I used to live and brew my own stuff there was a legal limit on the amount of beer I could brew each year. And I also know that some places have rules about where you have to have beer in your vehicle when transporting it. But I had no idea that simply transporting too much … read more »

Look, I really do not like the whole idea of pairing beer and food. You know that. It comes off as a wee bit snooty and, worse, it smacks a bit of exclusivity... but that has nothing to do with the fact that beer and food go so well together (or whether I am riddled with inconsistencies.) And … read more »

One of my favorite Christmas Eves was twenty years ago tonight, in Gullane, East Lothian, Scotland. I was visiting my uncle, auntie and cousins and had settled into a week long stay. It didn't take long for it to seem like to everyone in the village I was that "coosin frae Gan-ee-der." People …

I have been wondering what to do with these single boxes of Fuller's Vintage Ale I stick away every year. Seems a shame to blow them all in one binge even if shared with pals and plenty of notes. Not much to learn there. I needed a plan, a system. So, with that in mind, I figured that I would open …

I have mentioned it before, but I have been using the Kiva website for a couple of years now to lend money to operator's of corner stores offering beer in less fortunate nations. I know it is a bit of an odd idea but it is one I like and works for me. • Fascinated I was, then, to get a link from …

Stan is running a great discussion over at his place that I will not replicate but to trap my comment of this morning which I think has captured something of what I think about Dogfish Head. The first bit is what Stan wrote in a comment followed by my observations: • “…I tried to write the post …

I have no idea how long this beer has been in the stash. Paid $4.69 if that is any hint. Its full name is Foonf Zane Auld Ale Anniversary Small Batch. Not sure which of Atlantic Brewing's anniversaries - though the BAers are telling me it was the 15th back in 2006. So, sort of Nederlands meets …

That seems to be the logic - that super strong beer is the new highway to hell. The Government of Alberta is adding a surcharge to stop kids and other sorts of vulnerable Albertans from drinking a class of beer they, frankly, never intended to drink... or, more likely, were even aware existed …

Remember that Big M Mart in Potsdam New York that I helped stock better beer? Well, that is over in St. Lawrence County, down stream from us here in central Easlakia near where the big lake meets the big river. Click on the map. It will make more sense. Other near neighbours have good supply, too …

Decades ago, Monty Python did a bit about a secret Welsh martial art of self-defence that required you to attack your opponent before the idea of attacking you came into his head. For some reason, this story out of Michigan made me think of that... • ...the unidentified victim told police he was …

Ahhh, it's like the moment when Santa stuffs the last stocking and hangs it by the final fireplace with care. All the emails have been sent connecting contest gift givers with contest winners. Now, it's Miller time - or, in my case, mocha porter time. • I am being especially lazy about my … read more »

This is the day we award the championship. The top example of 2010's supreme master class in beer photography. And all in Santa's name. And the Yule log. I was going to play this out but I understand I have to get a tree, buy a family's worth of presents, locate the frozen joints of half a dozen …

Here we go. The first wave of awards for the photo contest winners. Winner has a number of meanings as you will see. Some prizes go to the best art. Some for other reasons. Included in tonights awards are the four category winners as well as the three Canada-only prizes. And please bear with me as …

OK, enough with the categories and on to the prize giving. So far, we have a winner for beer and snow, one for beer and babies, another for beer portraiture and one for beer and place. Then there is the cham-peen of all cham-peens. How to give away prizes based on that. Just to remind you, here … read more »

It's a bit odd suggesting that these are entries under this categories seeing as I only thought up the idea of judging by category after the contest closed. And I am still not sure if I am going to award prizes entirely based on the categories. Maybe I should do a draw - why not? Well, one reason …

Did I really write "tomorrow" on Wednesday meaning that this post would be up on Thursday? Surely I meant "day after tomorrow" knowing that an oatmeal stout or two would get in the way. Whatever has happened, here we are with the beer portraiture category. Consider these: • Let's think about …

OK - here are all the photos about snow: • Which is the winner? I have to post these and think about this for a moment... • [Ed.: ...taking that moment...] • First, I am cutting photo shopped images and, while we are at it, pictures of closed beer. I just can't see putting the bottle back in …

OK, I realize that most beer related posts would be about babes but this is really about babies. Years ago I took a photo of my now pre-teen, then but a few months old, reaching for a well made craft beer during her first visit to a brew pub. For a few years now, I have tested the principle … read more »

While the 2010 photo contest results churn on a vast array of reel to reel servers that fill the basement, I have time to think of other things. Like the meaning of that line up there. Apparently, right before Christmas, there is a big bump in interest in beers of the month clubs. Having written a …

It has been a great contest but the 2010 Hogmanay, Yuletide, Winter Solstice, Christmas, Hanukkah, New Years Eve, Kwanzaa and Snow Ball Tourney Beer Blog Photo Contest is over. Another 44 entries came in at the end making for a total of 226 entries. When the dear old gent himself Stonch and I did …

It took a twoot from Tom for me to realize that this was the last day. The end times as it were: • You have until 12 noon ET to submit your photos to the 5th annual Christmas Beer Photo Contest. Win beer schwag! • For some reason I thought I had given you until this evening. I know this will …

I was shaking my head at another piece of Roger Protz's writing last night. This time it was a bit on Chimay. I like Chimay as much as anyone so my concerns do not relate to the brewer - but you will recall that Mr. Protz is hardly monastic himself. He has a temper and a lack of discretion when it …

This is crazy. Three beer blogging themes meet on one night. This is the final Friday of the Yule, Christmas, Hogmanay, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa 2010 Good Beer Blog Photo Contest. It is also the weekend that Mark Dredge demanded we Open It! And it is the night of The Session's 46th edition. That is …

It's funny when arseholes tell you that you are only treated as a fool because you don't understand things as profoundly as they do. In web design the arsehole's joke went like this: "Funny? If you understood that joke on as many levels as I do, you'd really know what funny meant." This article on …

Note: I did not write "lib-beer-ty" because I have standards. Nevertheless, good to see that so many of my brothers and sisters are crossing the border like me to exercise their right to a reasonable personal retail relationship with craft beer: • Two Saturdays ago, Troy Burtch settled into a …

Alan is apparently a Gen X-er who has hit 40... err...44... err... 45... YIKES... 46 ... [ZOW-WEE!!] 48... jessh, now 51... and edits and writes about other stuff at his personal website Gen X at 40. Please email Alan or any of the authors at this blog's gmail account - please write if you want to join the ranks of authors of this site or just want to send in a story on your favorite beer or photo of your regular pub.

I have moved the content of the OCB Commentary Wiki here. It is now a static document and pretty much is locked in as understandings existed as of 2012. Probably needs its own wiki to update the content! Below are the original introductory remarks:

"The purpose of this wiki is to collectively make comments, add annotation, identify errata and suggest further sources to the text of The Oxford Companion to Beer. Members are asked to avoid comment about the authors, the structure of the text or other extraneous matters. This wiki is a not for profit project that reviews the text pursuant to the concept of "fair dealing for the purpose of criticism or review" under Canadian copyright law." Alan McLeod, wiki Organizer, and chief bottle washer at A Good Beer Blog. Motto? "Many hands make pleasant work." Alan McLeod, 25 October 2011. Please provide some information about yourself when making a request to join the wiki. Anonymous requests for membership will not be approved. Overly ardent and rudely put claims to authority will be cause for removal from the membership. As of 11 January 2012, 134 entries or 12.2% of the total of 1,100 received commentary, many with multiple comments. Eight of the photos have been corrected as well. That number rose to 151 by 13 May 2012.